While the use of Short Message Service (SMS) for personal communication has declined, the technology will remain relevant in South Africa.
This is the view of Flickswitch MD and founder Kees Snijders, who explained that the key strength of SMS remains that it works independently of Internet connectivity.
“The future of SMS in South Africa will likely remain relevant, though its primary use cases may shift,”
“While consumer messaging has largely transitioned to platforms like WhatsApp, SMS will continue to be vital for critical communication services, especially in sectors like banking, government, and emergency services.”
Snijders said SMS’s ubiquity, simplicity, and reliability in reaching even the most basic mobile devices ensure that it maintains a key role in specific scenarios — particularly where internet access is limited or inconsistent.
Asked why SMS continues to be used despite the rise of WhatsApp and authenticator apps, Snijders said there were several reasons.
“First, it is a universal service that doesn’t require Internet access or a smartphone, making it accessible to the entire population, including those in rural or underserved areas,” he said.
“Second, its simplicity and reliability make it the preferred choice for time-sensitive communications like one-time PINs, alerts, and confirmations.”
Another newer frontier for SMS is the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) sector.
“In the growing world of IoT, SMS also plays a crucial role in relaying control messages to remote devices,” Snijders said.
MTN and Telkom told MyBroadband earlier this year that although SMS was declining in South Africa, the technology remains popular among a large number of customers.
Telkom agreed with Flickswitch that SMS is still of significant value to South African businesses as it ensures they can reach customers without data.
“Businesses prefer SMS as they want to ensure that the messages reach the customer and the user is not relying on data to receive communication,” it said.
Telkom said that although businesses have already started engaging with their customers via messaging apps, cost remains a deterrent for many of them.
Kees Snijders, Flickswitch founder and MD
Another major shift in the industry could happen if consumers adopt the successor to SMS — Rich Communication Services (RCS) — as their preferred messaging service.
Telkom believes it is inevitable.
“Once consumers adopt RCS at scale as a preferred messaging service, businesses will also start using it to communicate with their customers,” it said.
Google created RCS messaging to offer non-Apple phone users a competitive alternative to iMessage.
The technology incorporates features from instant messaging applications like Facebook Messenger, iMessage, and WhatsApp.
These include group chats, exchanging high-resolution media, and message read receipts.
A major breakthrough for RCS adoption this year was Apple’s announcement that it would support the standard in its default messaging app, finally enabling interoperability between iPhones and Android devices.
“Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association,” Apple said in a statement.
“We believe RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS.”
Apple added that “this will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users.”
Proposed new SMS bundle rules for South Africa
SMS also featured in revised regulations published by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) earlier this year.
This included proposed new rules for the data, voice, and SMS bundles sold by South Africa’s mobile network operators.
Firstly, Icasa proposed that mobile networks must deplete bundles in order of earliest expiry.
For example, mobile network operators will have to stop consumption of the monthly bundle for cellular users who purchased a weekly SMS bundle after receiving their monthly allocation until the weekly allocation is depleted.
Icasa also proposed bundle rollovers for medium- and long-term bundles. Medium-term bundles comprise those lasting between seven and 30 days, while long-term bundles are those valid for more than 30 days.
It made no proposals for short-term — daily to seven-day — bundles. However, it proposed that 50% of unused medium-term bundles should be rolled over if not depleted by the end of the period.
For long-term bundles, only 25% of unused data must be rolled over to the equivalent validity period at least twice.
Icasa added that the rollover of bundles must occur without requiring any action and without incurring any cost to the end-user.
The regulator also proposed that mobile networks must allow customers to transfer bundles or portions thereof to any other customer on the same network while retaining the same conditions as the original bundle.
Lastly, Icasa proposed that bundle validity periods must be extended when a customer is unable to use it as a result of a network fault.
